How To Use ETFs To Create Synthetic Markets: 2 Plays

By Steven Reiman:With this article, we just want to point out that there are more options than trading the stock market directly. In general, investors are either long (bullish) or short (bearish) in the S&P 500 or other indexes. More precisely, private investors either buy stocks or they keep their money in cash or bonds. We just want to introduce the "new markets" we can build artificially. To make it clear, there are a number of official markets, like buying stocks using the USD of my account, or buying commodities, like gold, through futures. However, there is not a place where an investor could directly bet that gold is going to outperform oil, or that Apple (AAPL) is a better company than the Nasdaq as whole (and get the difference positive or negative). Through two examples, we will show two possible real trades using ETFs. These trades are just examples, not recommendationsComplete Story »

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World markets are beginning the new week with a new case of the jitters…
Escalating pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong are helping to fan some selling this morning. Hong Kong’s Hang Sang Index has slipped into the red for the year. Stocks in Europe are lower. U.S. futures are in the red. Last week’s performance doesn’t help matters. The S&P slid 1.4% — even after taking into account Friday’s comeback move.
Cue the doomsday predictions! Surely, these series of events will catalyze a major shift in the markets.
Or maybe not…

NEW DELHI: It’s difficult to make money in the market when it is rangebound. A similar story unfolded for the benchmark indices in last two weeks and the Nifty50 now needs to close above 8,820 to confirm a bullish bias. The Nifty50 on Wednesday formed a ‘Bullish Harami’ kind of pattern ahead of F&O expiry, as it sustained above the 8,700 level on a closing basis. The only difference is that the candle body formed on Wednesday covered 90 per cent of the previous candle body and was not small.

NEW DELHI: The Nifty50 consolidated in a narrow range throughout the week, but managed to close above the crucial psychological level of 8,650 on Friday. The momentum is likely to gather steam if it manages to close convincingly above the 8,700 level. "After an extended weekend, our market remained subdued throughout the week, which clearly showed a time-wise correction or consolidation phase," market veterans said. "Last week's price action resulted in the formation of a 'diamond' pattern on the hourly charts with a breakout in the upward direction on Thursday.

Silver has gone on a tear over the last month, culminating in a massive gain on Monday that is only adding to questions about the sustainability of the rally.
The metal has jumped 28 per cent since the start of June, but the gains have accelerated since the Brexit vote on June 23. The key futures contract jumped as much as eight per cent on Monday, reaching a two-year high of US$21.23 an ounce.

NEW DELHI: Making money in the Indian stock market has not been easy amid depressing global cues, but individual stocks have made money for investors so far in 2016. The S&P BSE Sensex has moved in a range so far in 2016 and is awaiting fresh triggers for a breakout, which could well take Nifty50 above 8,000 and the BSE Sensex above 26,000. Those picking stocks based on technical analysis always follow certain price patterns, indicators and oscillators. One such indicator is the Golden Cross, which signifies strength.

Apple was up about 7.5% on Wednesday after activist investor Carl Icahn revealed that he and his team were in the process of revising their price estimate on the stock. Mr. Icahn made this comment on CNBC’s “Fast Money: Halftime Report,” where he praised the Cupertino tech giant for its impressive earnings results.

An ugly start to fall trading is pointing toward a market pullback…
I’ll show you exactly what to do to prepare for a potential correction in just a minute. But first, let’s take a closer look at some of the market’s latest warning signs.

More than even the unfolding "chaos theory" pandemonium in Greece, market watchers were even more focused on whether or not China and the PBOC will succeed in rescuing its market from what is now a crash that threatens social stability in the world's most populous nation. And, at the open it did. The problem is that as the trading session progressed, the initial 8% surge in stocks faded as every bout of buying was roundly sold into until every other index but the benchmark Shanghai Composite turned sharply red.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has had an amazing ride so far, going as vertically as a stock with its valuation is allowed to go. While Apple saw most of its gains starting shakily at the beginning of the year, they were bolstered significantly after its earnings report, which beat expectations significantly.

Hedge funds are going increasingly long on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) this year; they aim to make massive gains from the stock reaching all-time highs almost every day as of late. Goldman Sachs, in its latest research report, noted that Apple stock is the most popular bull call among 688 hedge funds surveyed by the investment bank.